Electric Blues Recommendations

[Quincy]

Paul, great list there @ post 17. Very close to what I would have listed, if I hadn't been too lazy.

Paul, great list there @ post 17. Very close to what I would have listed, if I hadn't been too lazy.

Indeed! I've bought 5 of those from his past recs and J.A.W.'s too. I'm especially fond of the Elmore. And Hooker's Modern Recordings in Paul's next post.

While the box route is fun don't rule out all of the 2 disc possibilities, or just using "box money" to buy a bunch of different individual artist albums.

[Face of the Bass]

Thanks for all the recs (and whatever others you guys may add). I love starting these threads because the collective knowledge and passion found in this forum always results in an avalanche of good stuff that I've never heard of or considered before.

[Chuck Nessa]

you got good recommendations.

[paul secor]

Ashamed to say that I completely forgot about Howlin' Wolf:

Moanin' in the Moonlight & Howlin' Wolf

Great and powerful music.

[jeffcrom]

I was going to stay out this, knowing that you would be in good hands, but I want to expand one of cih's recommendations by saying that these two albums:

Snooky Pryor and Chicago Blues Harmonicas, both on Paula, are not only excellent musically, they're kind of "important" in terms of documenting Mississippi blues in the process of becoming Chicago blues. The Chicago Blues Harmonicas disc has further Snooky Pryor tracks not on the first album.

[marcello]

[Face of the Bass]

So I've gone ahead and ordered the T-Bone Walker Imperial Recordings and Capitol Black and White recordings, as well as the John Lee Hooker Legendary Modern Recordings.

Later, I'm thinking of making a run at some of the Chess boxes, particularly Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters.

I love educating myself on styles of music that I have paid little attention to in the past.

[StarThrower]

The Wolf and Waters Chess boxes are great! The packaging is rather cumbersome, and takes up a lot of room.

[Jim R]

I'd put this right up there too:

[Joe]

So I've gone ahead and ordered the T-Bone Walker Imperial Recordings and Capitol Black and White recordings, as well as the John Lee Hooker Legendary Modern Recordings.

Later, I'm thinking of making a run at some of the Chess boxes, particularly Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters.

I love educating myself on styles of music that I have paid little attention to in the past.

Let us know what you think about all of these once you've had a chance to listen and live with them for a while!

One more... from the late 60s / early 70s, but the producers did a wonderful job of capturing the heat and grit of McDowell's slide guitar tone... one of the great "sounding" electric blues records, IMO, intimate and spontaneous.

I prefer the Fuel 2000 mastering (from 2001; appears to be a straight reissue, but features a few bonus cuts) to the earlier (1995) Capitol issue... which, however, contains the complete sessions on 2 CDs...

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I'd put this right up there too:

Do those albums have Bland's complete Duke material? There's so much great stuff there, someone ought to do a box.

MG

[cih]

I was going to stay out this, knowing that you would be in good hands, but I want to expand one of cih's recommendations by saying that these two albums:

Snooky Pryor and Chicago Blues Harmonicas, both on Paula, are not only excellent musically, they're kind of "important" in terms of documenting Mississippi blues in the process of becoming Chicago blues. The Chicago Blues Harmonicas disc has further Snooky Pryor tracks not on the first album.

thanks - much clearer than my cryptic post! - to add to that, it's worth considering other records that document this process, electric or not, such as:

- which is really really great stuff, with John Lee Sonny Boy Williamson on harp, I think iirc it's all acoustic but Big Joe did plenty of electric later of course. Be aware though that this disc from Document is highly likely a CDR

not on the disc - electric Big Joe:

http://youtu.be/qL_YXb0pOfM

Edited March 2, 2013 by cih

[John L]

I'd put this right up there too:

Do those albums have Bland's complete Duke material? There's so much great stuff there, someone ought to do a box.

MG

Yes, that is volume 1. All of Bland's Duke recordings were available on three such volumes, each with 2 CDs.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Thanks - must get those - after I get the 5 Ace CDs of Fats Domino's singles, of which I don't have much - I have lots of Bland.

MG

[Big Beat Steve]

Another series of "smaller" and quite affordable box sets that would provide a good overview of a wide range of artists (many quite worthy of attention but not credited with comprehensive reissues of their own elsewhere) is on the U.K. FANTASTIC VOYAGE label.

The "Let Me Tell You About The Blues" series of 3-CD sets looks like quite a good point of departure for "startups" in this field. They have regional compilations on New Orleans, Nashville, Detroit, Atlanta, West Coast, Texas, new York, Memphis and Chicago:

http://www.fantasticvoyagemusic.com/genre/blues/

But note that they are partly pre-war, partly post-war (some more so, some less).

Take your pick ...

[Jim R]

I'd put this right up there too:

Do those albums have Bland's complete Duke material? There's so much great stuff there, someone ought to do a box.

MG

Yes, that is volume 1. All of Bland's Duke recordings were available on three such volumes, each with 2 CDs.

Oops, yeah, that was just volumes 1 and 2. Forgot about vol. 3:

[John L]

I'd put this right up there too:

Do those albums have Bland's complete Duke material? There's so much great stuff there, someone ought to do a box.

MG

Yes, that is volume 1. All of Bland's Duke recordings were available on three such volumes, each with 2 CDs.

Oops, yeah, that was just volumes 1 and 2. Forgot about vol. 3:

Actually, you also forgot about volume 2, maybe the strongest of the three.

[Jim R]

I'd put this right up there too:

Do those albums have Bland's complete Duke material? There's so much great stuff there, someone ought to do a box.

MG

Yes, that is volume 1. All of Bland's Duke recordings were available on three such volumes, each with 2 CDs.

Oops, yeah, that was just volumes 1 and 2. Forgot about vol. 3:

Actually, you also forgot about volume 2, maybe the strongest of the three.

John, I posted it, and it's there in the post you quoted. Maybe you have a browser issue?

[John L]

Yes! For some reason, it doesn't show up with Firefox on my Mac. I see it now with Explorer. Sorry.

Great music!

[paul secor]

One more:

Chicago Blues - The Vee Jay Era (Charly) - 2 CDs

Out of print, but there are copies available on Amazon for about $20, including shipping, on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000009QBV/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

Vee Jay played second fiddle to Chess in the Chicago blues market, but they released a lot of very fine blues sides, and this provides a very good sampling. Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker, and Memphis Slim were the biggest sellers on the label, but these CDs let you hear Snooky Pryor, Billy Boy Arnold, Floyd Jones, Billy Emerson, J.B. Lenoir, L.C. McKinley (an anomaly - a Chicago bluesman who played in T-Bone Walker's style), and Big Joe Williams (accompanied by Sam Fowler's wailing harp and almost free style drumming by Al Duncan), in addition to the big three names.

One to get before it becomes even rarer.

There's also Chicago Blues - The Chance Era, which is also great, but a bit more expensive

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00000367F/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

[John L]

In addition to all of these fine recommendations, it would be good to tap into the West Coast electric blues from the 40s & 50s. There are a number of cheap box sets floating around of material produced by Bob Geddins. In addition to the well known stars (Lowell Fulson, Jimmy McCracklin, Johnny Guitar Watson), Check out Jimmy Wilson, Lafayette "Thing" Thomas, Johnny Heartsman, Pee Wee Crayton, Johnny Fuller, James Reed, There was a great LP on ACE called "Bay Area Blues Blasters" featuring some of these people. There is a CD by the same name, but has different music.

[paul secor]

In addition to all of these fine recommendations, it would be good to tap into the West Coast electric blues from the 40s & 50s. There are a number of cheap box sets floating around of material produced by Bob Geddins. In addition to the well known stars (Lowell Fulson, Jimmy McCracklin, Johnny Guitar Watson), Check out Jimmy Wilson, Lafayette "Thing" Thomas, Johnny Heartsman, Pee Wee Crayton, Johnny Fuller, James Reed, There was a great LP on ACE called "Bay Area Blues Blasters" featuring some of these people. There is a CD by the same name, but has different music.

The music on the Ace LP - Bay Area Blues Blasters - is now found on 3 CDs. The sides by Lafayette "Thing" Thomas, Baby "Pee Wee" Parham, Johnny Parker, and one Jimmy McCracklin side are on Jimmy McCracklin: Blues Blastin' Vol. 2 - Ace CHD 993.

The Roy Hawkins sides are on Roy Hawkins: Bad Luck Is Falling - Ace CHG 1096.

The James Reed sides are on The Downhome Blues Sessions 1949-1954 - Ace CHD 1194.

All of these CDs contain much additional very fine music.

The other CD entitled Bay Area Blues Blasters is on the El Cerrito label. It's a bootleg - or was when it was issued - the material is probably p.d. in the U.K. and Europe by now. It contains music by different group of musicians (Johnny Heartsman, Tiny Powell, Ray Agee, Jimmy Liggins, and others) and is taken from 45's issued in the 1950s and 60s.

All of this is probably more than anyone other than a compulsive collector needs to know.

[Head Man]

I was playing this very loud this afternoon and suddenly remembered this thread. OK it's not '50s but it's certainly electric and it's not expensive. A GREAT collection.....as are the 20th & 25th anniversary collections I might add.

[John L]

In addition to all of these fine recommendations, it would be good to tap into the West Coast electric blues from the 40s & 50s. There are a number of cheap box sets floating around of material produced by Bob Geddins. In addition to the well known stars (Lowell Fulson, Jimmy McCracklin, Johnny Guitar Watson), Check out Jimmy Wilson, Lafayette "Thing" Thomas, Johnny Heartsman, Pee Wee Crayton, Johnny Fuller, James Reed, There was a great LP on ACE called "Bay Area Blues Blasters" featuring some of these people. There is a CD by the same name, but has different music.

The music on the Ace LP - Bay Area Blues Blasters - is now found on 3 CDs. The sides by Lafayette "Thing" Thomas, Baby "Pee Wee" Parham, Johnny Parker, and one Jimmy McCracklin side are on Jimmy McCracklin: Blues Blastin' Vol. 2 - Ace CHD 993.

The Roy Hawkins sides are on Roy Hawkins: Bad Luck Is Falling - Ace CHG 1096.

The James Reed sides are on The Downhome Blues Sessions 1949-1954 - Ace CHD 1194.

All of these CDs contain much additional very fine music.

The other CD entitled Bay Area Blues Blasters is on the El Cerrito label. It's a bootleg - or was when it was issued - the material is probably p.d. in the U.K. and Europe by now. It contains music by different group of musicians (Johnny Heartsman, Tiny Powell, Ray Agee, Jimmy Liggins, and others) and is taken from 45's issued in the 1950s and 60s.

All of this is probably more than anyone other than a compulsive collector needs to know.

Much appreciated. I do have the Bay Area Blues blaster LP in digital format. I became so fond of the song selection and play ordering that I reconstituted the album from a number of collections.

[Face of the Bass]

So, a first observation as I begin to absorb the music I bought as a result of this thread:

Elmore James. Holy shit, Elmore James. Listening to the early recordings 3-cd set on Ace, and the music seems to offer an almost perfect blend of raw vocals and slide guitar. I've been listening this week to Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, all of it so far is various degrees of good. But Elmore James is, for me, operating at another level. I've been listening to this set for the last three days, and I can't get past disc one because I just keep replaying it and replaying it. The blues elements found in his music are so familiar to me, being an American who has grown up listening to American music, but there is an element to his voice and his guitar that feels otherworldly and immortal. It can't possibly get any better than this, can it?